Input devices

Keyboard

The computer keyboard is similar in layout to a typewriter keyboard, but may have extra keys. These are generally marked Fl, F2, etc., and can be used for different purposes in different programs. The keyboard is generally connected to the computer by a flexible cable.

Joystick

A control stick is sometimes used to supplement the keyboard. It is used to move something, generally cursor, about the screen. The cursor is a flashing square or arrow that is used to point to something on the screen or the monitor.

Mouse

A mouse is an improvement on the joystick. Instead of the control stick, you have a small plastic box on the desk in front of you. To move the cursor, you just move the mouse in the appropriate direction, across the desk, and the cursor follows. This is a more natural action than using the joystick.

Touch-screen

Some monitors are built with a system that can detect where a finger is placed on the screen. You can select menu items simply by touching the appropriate part of the screen.

Bar-code reader

Anyone who shops in a modern supermarket will be familiar with bar-code readers. The reader is a penshaped device that is plugged into the computer. At the tip of the reader is an optical sensor that detects printed marks.

Exercise 4. Answer the questions below.

1. What is meant by peripherals?

2. What is the joystick for?

3. What is a cursor and how is it controlled?

4. What's a mouse? What is it for?

5. In what way can a menu item be selected?

6. What is the bar-code reader?

Exercise 5. Choose the right word from the list below.

1. It is wise to make copies of __ at regular intervals when you are typing data into a microcomputer.

2. Always be aware that a disk fault, or even a brief power failure, will lose all the work you have typed in, from the point when you last made a __.

3. Almost all microcomputers have two disk drives, so you can ___ a blank disk in one slot and the full disk in the other to copy it.

4. Some microcomputers use cassette tapes for storing __ and data.

5. Tapes can hold a lot of ___, but are much slower to use than disks.

6. The computer can go immediately to any of the __ data.

7. A tape, on the other hand, is a serial access device from which information can be retrieved only in the __ in which it was recorded.

recorded, information, disks, back-up, order, put, programs

Text 7 can a computer respond to the human voice?

A team of university academics has joined forces with the electronics giant Plessey to produce a speech-driven» typewriter. Scientists have spent years trying to crack the problem of creating a computer which responds to the human * voice. The Plessey team believes that it may be able to produce a machine which responds to the sound and shape of words-and print them out in typewritten form.

Research on the Plessey project has been going on for six months. It combines the electronic expertise of Plessey with the linguistic and computer skills of academics at Edinburgh university, Loughborough and Imperial College, London.

The obstacles to producing a speech-driven typewriter or word-processor are formidable. Computers cannot understand the subtleties of the spoken language, differences in tone, clarity and speed of diction. But the Plessey team hopes to develop a machine which can reproduce the sound and shape of words in written form, without necessarily understanding the content.

«We're not trying to create a voice-controlled typewriter, but one which responds to the human voice», says Dr Henry Thompson, an American expert in artificial intelligence a| Edinburgh university. The machine would operate like this, businessman speaks into a microphone at dictation speed, giving the computer time to analyse the speech signals and-process them into words. Processing is the difficult bit. The human voice is capable of around 130 different speech sounds, so the computer has to select the right one and then decide where to split the sounds into words and sentences.

In addition, there are hundreds of different ways of pronouncing words. So how does the computer cope with a heavy Scottish accent? Dr Thompson says that the computer will have to be «trained». This involves giving it a prepared text and then letting our imaginary Scot dictate the same text so the computer can acclimatize itself. Inevitably, there will be mistakes in final text produced by the computer. But as Thompson says: «How many times do you get a perfect text back from your secretary?»

The big advantage of the speech-driven typewriter will be its commercial potential. «Businessmen want access to computers without having to learn typing skills», says Thompson. «The project is a good example of academics wanting to solve a problem joining up with a company looking for a commercial product».

Thompson has been working on artificial intelligence for nearly 10 years since he studied at Berkeley, the University of California. Other academics include members of the linguistics department at Edinburgh University, a team at Loughborough who specialise in communications between machines and men, and Professor John Darlington, an expert in computer architecture at Imperial College. Plessey, meanwhile, will provide the microchips and the hardware.

(After Lionel Barker)

Notes:

• word processor -– текстовый процессор

• bit – бит; кусок, кусочек

• to cope with – справляться

• microchip – микрочип

• hardware – оборудование, аппаратура

• to crack the problem – решать проблему

Exercise I. Read the article through carefully and then decide how many of the following observations are correct.

The article is about...

1. a new kind of typewriter that is on the sale in the ..... UK.

2. a collaboration between industry and university scientists.

3. a typewriter that will be able to record sounds.

4. a machine for transforming sounds into printed words.

5. something that will be very useful for businessmen.

6. a typewriter without a keyboard.

7. a new kind of dictating machine.

8. an invention by an American scientist who is working at Edinburgh University.

9. something Dr Thompson has been working on for ten days.

10. a typewriter that will respond to words spoken by the human voice.

Exercise 2. Are you sure that you pronounce these words correctly?

microchip

artificial

expertise

giant

subtlety

microphone

processing

Edinburgh

architecture

keyboard

peripherals

visual

cursor

microcomputer

appropriate

facsimile

scientist

procedure

machine

hardware

commercial

Exercise 3. Read the following extract. Choose the right word from the list below.

In E-mail messages are sent from _1_ computer to another. Many companies have computerized their accounting procedures because _ 2_ can do the work more quickly and more _3_ than people.

The work the computer does – storing information, finding the right _ 4_ and doing calculations – is called DATA PROCESSING. The part of the computer that processes the data (information) is called the CPU (central _5_ unit).

This contains only electronic _6_, called microchips. A computer can only do what it is instructed to do. The _7_ that are stored in a computer are called the computer program. The_8_ who write these instructions and put them in the computer are called computer programmers. You do not have to be a computer __9 to use a computer.